Final bids were submitted on 28 February, and the US-based player reiterated that interest was shown by international oil companies, national oil companies and global utility companies.
InterOil did not disclose how many final offers were received, saying only that “several” bids had been received.
The project must introduce a recognised international operator in order to receive the PNG government’s final approval to proceed.
“I know that you are all awaiting the announcements on the asset sell-down process, and I can assure you that we are all excited about our future, especially given the certified resources that we have,” said InterOil’s chief financial officer Collin Francis Visaggio.
“Our board intends to meet our advisors during March for the purpose of evaluating the proposals received and selecting our partner for the development of the LNG project.
“The asset sell-down, once completed, will fund the Gulf LNG project and our longer-term exploration programme,” said Visaggio.
The company did not put a deadline on the sale process.
The project’s current shape — as provisionally approved by the government in November 2012 — involves a single onshore train of 3.8 million tonnes per annum of LNG, coming on stream in 2016, followed by a second identical train two years later.
InterOil’s most recent capital cost guidance for two trains was between $8.3 billion and $9.3 billion.
The Canadian company has battled against market pessimism about the project for years, but Interoil has always believed in its feedstock — the Elk-Antelope fields — and has been drilling wells regularly in support of this.
Chief executive Phil Mulacek said that, based on the two wells drilled last year, Antelope-3 and Triceratops-2, a new independent reserves report by GLJ Petroleum Consultants gave the Elk-Antelope and Triceratops fields a best-case contingent resource of 9.45 trillion cubic feet of gas and 143.6 million barrels of condensate, 10% higher than previously.
InterOil’s latest drilling rig, Rig 3, is now rigged up and on location at the Elk-3 well.